The Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano, Dr. Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso, has described the protest against the Minister of State for Defence as politically motivated aimed at tarnishing his good reputation.
This is contained in a statement personally signed by him as and issued to newsmen in Kano on Wednesday.
“The protests against the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle on the issues of insecurity, specifically in Zamfara State, clearly shows that it is a politically motivated actions aimed at dragging his reputation in the mud, because he is not the only security appointee that is charged with the responsibility of ensuring peace in the country.
The APC chieftain who insisted that, “The protests were staged managed and sponsored to particularly target at Matawalle reputation and show to President Tinubu and the Nation that he has failed, whereas he is just a State Minister of Defence who has other colleagues to report to, like the Defence Minister, the Security Adviser and indeed the President”.
“In any case why are they so particular about Matawalle when the Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawan is openly failing in his responsibilities of ensuring peace in his state but rather collecting billions of Naira grants.
Recall that hundreds of women and youths from Zamfara State, on Tuesday, protested at the headquarters of the Department of Security Services in Abuja, over heightened insecurity in the state.
The protesters blamed the immediate-past governor of the state and Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, for the heightened activities of bandits, which they claimed was a fallout of his alleged romance with them during his administration.
However, Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso, lamented that the same Protesters failed to also shows efforts of their Governor in making Zamfara peaceful who rather engaged in disrupting open serious interventions of the Defence Ministers, Badaru and Matawalle who even relocated to Sokoto to ensure that the fight against Banditry achieved the desired results.
He said, “We have seen Bello Matawalle coming out to the public swearing by the Holy Quran that he has nothing to do with bandits and their activities and additionally killings of kingpins of Bandit’s after his declaration followed to further vindicate him”.
“But, we have not seen, Zamfara Governor or any of his political godsons doing same or showing their efforts in tackling the problems of kidnapping and banditry in their state.What we kept on seeing is consistent attacks of Matawalle, which every sensible person knows that there is a missing gap in that”.
“Is Dauda Lawan not happy with the daily elimination of bandits through the renewed efforts of the two Defence Ministers and the Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.?
“Somebody should explain what else he wants, because from the checks of available data Security has improved greatly not only in Zamfara but across the country, courtesy of the President Tinubu appointees”.
He then called on the Governor and his cohorts to join hands with the Matawalle and other security Chiefs in tackling the problems headlong rather than truncating the serious efforts being put by the Federal Government”.
